


While the Snow's Coming Down

by DownToTheSea



Series: Specular Reflection [3]
Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas, F/M, Fluff, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 10:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16890630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DownToTheSea/pseuds/DownToTheSea
Summary: Before leaving Oxford for the holidays, Helen visits Nikola in their shared laboratory.





	While the Snow's Coming Down

**Author's Note:**

> For the Tumblr prompt "Baby Nikola and Helen kissing at Oxford (with or without the existence of John)" which was for my Teslen promptathon a year and a half ago, oops. XD It's also the prompt that inspired this whole series! This is set before the first two fics. Enjoy! <3 (Title is a reference to the song Christmas (Baby Please Come Home.))

Fierce winter wind howled outside the laboratory, blowing snowflakes wildly here and there past the window and whistling through the cracks in the building. Outside, the ground was blanketed in snow, and the temperature was dropping fast as the sun sank. Most of the students had already left, released from Oxford to spend Christmas with their families.

Nikola had remained behind. He couldn’t afford to go running off across the continent every few months, and besides, he preferred it this way. Weeks of blissful solitude, of peace and quiet and the chance to focus entirely on his own projects… The prospect was almost too delightful to describe. He would miss his mother and sisters, but that was nearly all the regret he could summon at staying behind.

_ Nearly  _ all. He would miss Helen and Nigel too, both of whom were leaving until classes resumed. Nigel was already gone, dropping in to the laboratory on his way out to give Nikola cheerful season’s wishes and advise him not to make anything explode while they were gone. He’d had another piece of advice for Nikola, too, which Nikola was endeavoring to forget as quickly as he could.

“Just tell her,” Nigel had urged. “You wouldn’t want some fellow to sweep her off her feet over Christmas while you were working your courage up, now, would you?”

Nikola had lifted his eyes up from his microscope to fix Nigel with an icy glare. “If Helen wishes to be swept off her feet by ‘some fellow,’ that is entirely her business,” he had said a bit testily, and looked back down at the microscope to conceal the stab of pain he felt at the prospect. “We have – I should say  _ you  _ have discussed this innumerable times – ”

“Not innumerable to you, I’ll wager,” Nigel had put in with a cheeky grin.

“Twenty-seven, then,” Nikola had said, never able to resist the urge to show off a bit, before glaring at him some more. “And you know I have no desire to burden Helen with – with unwanted, unrequited feelings – ”

He was really working himself into a good monologue before Nigel interrupted him with an ungracious snort and a shake of his head. “Unrequited? Hopeless, the both of you.”

He’d let the matter drop after that, perhaps considering Nikola a lost cause. Maybe Nikola  _ was  _ a lost cause. But he treasured his relationship with Helen more than anything else, and he couldn’t bear the thought of ruining it with some clumsy attempt at a declaration of love – and clumsy it would be, since Nikola regularly forgot how to even breathe when she looked at him in a certain way.

No, it was better to leave things as they were. Perhaps one day Nikola would get over his silly infatuation and he could tell Helen then, just to make her laugh. He loved her laugh: clear and strong and genuine. Over the last few months he had found himself doing and saying increasingly ridiculous things just to hear it, and to see her eyes light up.

Nikola realized he was staring blankly into the distance, a foolish grin plastered to his face as he pictured Helen smiling at him, and sighed. He was doomed.

Footsteps sounded in the hall outside, and Nikola quickly wiped the smile off and bent back over his notes. There was only one person who would be coming to see him now, and he didn’t want her to catch him sighing over her like a character in a tragic romance.

The door opened softly, and the footsteps came inside. “Good afternoon, Nikola,” Helen said, her voice warm and rich as the finest wine.

Nikola straightened, glancing in her direction. His attempt to be casual backfired when he forgot how to breathe again.

She was beautiful, standing there in the doorway with melting snowflakes clinging to her dark dress and coat; her cheeks were rosy from the cold and there was a bright, affectionate light in her eyes as she smiled at him.

Nikola managed to smile back at her. “Good – good afternoon,” he choked. “I was beginning to think you had left without saying goodbye.”

Her eyes twinkled at him. “Of course I could not leave without seeing you, Nikola. Besides, I won’t be going far.”

“I saw Nigel earlier,” Helen said after a pause, her voice smooth and just a little too nonchalant. “He told me you wished to tell me something before I left.”

Nikola’s smile faltered, and he internally cursed Nigel for his meddling. Then an idea occurred to him, and he seized on it like a lifeline. “Well, I did want to get your opinion about this,” he said, turning to the blackboard behind him and gesturing at one of the long and complex formulas he had scrawled out over it. “Though it could have waited until after you returned.”

“Ah, no matter,” she said, and glided over to his side, peering at his notes. Was it his imagination, or did she look faintly disappointed?

“Fascinating,” she said at last, brightening. “I believe you may have hit on something here.”

Nikola glowed under her praise. “Thank you, Helen.”

“We will have to test this out when I return,” she continued. “I would have been tempted to try today, if Nigel had not already left.”

She turned to him, and Nikola suddenly realized that they were standing only a few inches apart. His breath caught as her deep blue eyes locked with his.

“And what are your plans?” she inquired. “I hope you will take at least a single day off work.”

“I could say the same of you,” he countered. Helen was the worst out of all of them when it came to overworking.

She gave him a wry smile. “Perhaps, but it will be difficult for me to do otherwise, with family obligations and limited access to the necessary equipment. You, on the other hand…”

She tilted her head, smirking, and Nikola’s eyes wandered down to her lips, chapped from the harsh wind and cold. He swallowed and quickly turned aside.

“One day. There, does that appease you?”

“Somewhat.”

Warmth radiated from her despite the cold, too close yet still agonizingly far away. Nikola swallowed again and attempted to concentrate on a page of his notes.

“You could visit me,” she said softly. “It’s less than a day’s drive.”

“No, no, I… I would not wish to trouble you and your father,” he said.

“It would be no trouble at all,” Helen assured him.

“Your father might disagree.” Nikola’s tone was dry.

“Don’t concern yourself with him,” Helen said. “I would be very pleased to see you, should you decide to visit.” She gave him an encouraging smile.

As had always been the case, Nikola was powerless to resist that smile. “Perhaps,” he said, “but only if you extract a promise from your father not to kill me on sight.”

Helen laughed. “I believe that should be possible.”

“Very well then,” Nikola said. His spirits lifted slightly as the prospect of seeing Helen at least once over the holiday.

Helen’s smile turned bright and satisfied, and, having accomplished her goal, she moved towards the door.

Though no more than a few feet separated them, Nikola was already beginning to feel the sting of her absence. So focused was he on distracting himself with his notes that he didn’t notice when Helen paused by the door.

“It seems as if someone has been infected with the spirit of the holiday. Somehow, I doubt that it was you.”

Nikola looked up in surprise and saw that she was gesturing at a small and rather squashed sprig of mistletoe, tacked above the door on the outside wall.

“Nigel,” he muttered. He must have hung it there as he left, no doubt as part of his ongoing machinations regarding Helen and Nikola.

“Nigel?” suggested Helen at the same time. “Though I cannot say what on earth he could have hoped to accomplish by hanging this here. After all, hardly anyone apart from ourselves ever passes through this doorway.” There was a curious look on her face as she gazed at Nikola.

“Only more of his usual mischief, I’m sure,” Nikola said, his tone as light as he could make it. He was grateful that he not walked Helen out, and so avoided a potentially awkward situation, even if there was a small, regretful part of him that wished he would have.

“I wonder,” Helen said quietly. She glanced over at Nikola with a strange expression. “Nikola,” she began, and then stopped.

His eyebrows drew together. “What is it, Helen?”

“Nothing of consequence.” She gave him a small smile. “I was only going to say, have a merry Christmas, Nikola.”

“Likewise. Goodbye,” he added in a whisper as she turned and exited the room, her skirts swishing.

The door closed behind her. Nikola went back to his notes, but he didn’t have the heart to concentrate on them. A few weeks was not such a long time, really, but the room already seemed colder and emptier now that she was gone.

“Nikola?” she said, popping back through the door frame. Nikola’s head snapped up. “Perhaps you would be so good as to come here and examine something for me.”

“What is it?” he asked, confused. There was certainly nothing of note in the hallway outside, unless Nigel had been particularly elaborate.

“Anything you like.” Amusement laced Helen’s voice.

It took him a moment to fully absorb this.

“Helen. Are you – ” He cleared his throat. “Are you saying that – that you would like me to… be standing over there?”

“I’ve been trying to say precisely that for quite some time,” Helen said. “You are nothing if not stubbornly convinced of your own infallibility.”

“Is insulting me your idea of a romantic prelude?” Nikola’s legs carried him shakily over until he was right under the mistletoe with Helen. He was at rather a loss for what to do next, but Helen took his hand, smiling when his fingers curled around hers.

“Among others.”

“Show me,” he breathed.

So she did.


End file.
